The Divorce Factory of 1861
Tired of a legislative session flooded with endless divorce petitions, the Washington Territorial Council finally moves to curb the practice.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Washington Territorial Council, during its eighth session in January 1861, took a decisive step to address a deluge of legislative divorce requests. Following the passage of several bills dissolving marriages, including those of John and Ann Cantwell, E.H. Thompson and his wife Elizabeth, and the Avery couple, a new sentiment took hold. A bill was introduced providing that no future divorce cases would be considered by the Legislative Assembly unless a notice of intention had been published in a newspaper for four months. This move toward reform was met with approval by the Standards' reporter, who noted the 'flood of divorces' that had characterized the session. Mr. Miller subsequently introduced a memorial praying that Congress amend the Organic Act to expressly prohibit the Legislature from granting divorces altogether. The Council, signaling a clear desire to be 'relieved from this evil,' passed the memorial under a suspension of the rules.
“The passage of such a bill after the flood of divorces of this session, is really wholesome. It exhibits a return of proper feeling.”
In the mid-19th century, before court-based divorce became the standard, Washington's territorial legislature was essentially a marriage court. This 1861 push to stop 'legislative divorces' reflects an early civic struggle to separate the business of lawmaking from the messy, private realities of domestic life—a tension that persists in modern debates over what issues belong in city council chambers versus the courts.
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